Peter Whitehill Franck

Peter Whitehill Franck, 88, of Hockessin, died November 16, 2018, in the Compassionate Care hospice of St. Francis Hospital, Wilmington, after a brief battle with cancer. Born in 1930 in Bognor Regis, England to Harry A. and Rachel Latta Franck, Peter was raised in New Hope, Pennsylvania—when he was not traveling with his peripatetic parents, who were renowned travel writers. Peter was a 1947 graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, and a member of the class of 1952 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he swam backstroke and butterfly for the varsity team. He interrupted his education with service in the U.S. Air Force, first as an enlisted man from June 1951 to March 1953, then as an officer and fighter pilot from March 1953 to March 1956, completing his service as a first lieutenant. As a pilot, he flew the all-weather F-94C Starfire, one of the Air Force’s earliest jet fighters, in the 332^nd Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, stationed at New Castle airbase, later to become the Wilmington airport. During his service at New Castle, he met his wife, the former Suzanne C. Taylor of Wilmington; they were married July 8, 1955.

Following his military service, Peter worked briefly in insurance, then for several years for the Deemer Steel Corporation in New Castle, before joining IBM in 1967. At IBM in Wilmington, he became a highly valued systems engineer, working chiefly in software adaptation and design for small businesses and even briefly teaching programming at the University of Delaware. He retired from IBM in 1992, and joined the software consulting firm Black Oak, continuing to work well into his 70s.

Raised from a young age as a Quaker, Peter was a member for half a century of Hockessin Friends Meeting, and its treasurer for the last 24 years. For over twenty years beginning in the early 1970s, he was a volunteer teacher of land navigation and survival for H.B. duPont Middle School’s annual seventh-grade field trip to Cape Henlopen, teaching many young people how to read a compass to find their way over open ground. He also served a term on the board of Wilmington Friends School.

Peter is survived by Suzanne, his wife of 63 years; by his stepson David L. Starr of Montreal; by his daughter Ellen R. Franck, his grandson Tye Parsons, his granddaughter Honor Parsons, his granddaughter Rachel Woodbury (Grant), and great-grandsons Peter and Henry Woodbury, all of St. George, UT; by his son Matthew J. Franck (Gwen) of Lawrenceville, NJ; by his sister Patricia Sheffield of New Jersey; and by his nieces and nephews Patricia Durborow, Oscar Huettner, Allison Huettner, Steven Huettner, and Charles Huettner. He was preceded in death by his siblings Harry A. Franck, Jr., Katharine Franck Huettner, and Charles William Franck, and by his grandson Benjamin Parsons.

In lieu of flowers, friends are encouraged to give to the Hockessin Friends Meeting building fund, or to St. Francis Hospital, whose Compassionate Care hospice gave Peter such loving care in his final days.